Getty Conor McGregor is interviewed by UFC's Joe Rogan during a ceremonial weigh-in for UFC 246 at Park Theater at Park MGM on January 17, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. McGregor will face Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 on January 18 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images)
There was “clearly something wrong” with Conor McGregor’s leg going into UFC 264 on July 10, 2021, according to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan.
McGregor took on Dustin Poirier in a trilogy bout during the main event in Las Vegas and at the end of the opening frame, “Notorious” suffered a broken leg. The fight was called off in between the first and second rounds by the ringside doctor, earning Poirier the win by TKO.
In the days after the gruesome snap, McGregor took to social media to claim that he had stress fractures in his lower leg leading into the contest with “The Diamond.” That was the reason why he broke his left tibia and fibula, according to McGregor. Notorious also said that he had an ankle injury going into the fight as well, which has also been confirmed by McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh.
The former two-division UFC champion shared several photos on social media of what appears to be him minding a lower left leg injury ahead of UFC 264, and after. He also shared a photo of an MRI. See the photos below:
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It’s important to note that McGregor’s stress fracture claim has been refuted by Dr. David Abbasi, an orthopedic surgeon. Abbasi said in a YouTube video that there was “no evidence” of a stress fracture to the lower leg.
Watch Abbasi’s assessment below:
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Rogan Said He Was Told That McGregor Trained for UFC 264 Without Shin & Instep Pads
Rogan recently spoke about McGregor’s injury during his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. According to Rogan, he was told that the Irishman trained without the use of shin pads, a piece of vital protective equipment. Rogan said there was a chance that McGregor was so “hell-bent on destroying” Poirier, that he decided on the strategy, which could have led to McGregor sustaining stress fractures and ultimately, the leg snap at UFC 264.
“Conor apparently went into that fight with a cracked shin already,” Rogan said via Low Kick MMA. “He had gotten a stress fracture in his shin and got it scanned and there’s even photographs of the scans and he was putting pads on it.
“I think what he was trying to do was, he was trying to spar during camp with no shin and instep pads. That’s what I’ve been told. I don’t know if it’s true. Whenever anything happens, you’ll get a bunch of text messages from guys: ‘Yeah I know a guy from Conor’s camp, he says Conor was sparring with no shin pads.’ I don’t know if that’s true. That’s a rare thing for somebody to spar (without any shinpads). He was so hell-bent on destroying Dustin Poirier, he might’ve don’t something like that and then it wound up costing him.”
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Rogan Sides With McGregor, Said It ‘Doesn’t Make Sense’ the Way His Leg Broke Inside the Octagon
Rogan compared McGregor’s leg break to former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman’s, who broke his leg during a match with Uriah Hall at UFC 261.
“You can see his leg, there’s clearly something wrong with it going in,” Rogan added. “Your leg doesn’t just break like that. Like, when you see Chris Weidman’s leg break it’s very clear. He throws it, it catches right where Uriah Hall’s shin meets the bottom of the knee, it’s a very rigid spot. Something has to give out and it was the shin – that makes sense. The Conor one didn’t really make sense.
“It didn’t make sense the way it broke. There was something wrong with it I would imagine already.”
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